Five quarterbacks from UCF’s FBS era landed on the Daytona News-Journal’s 105-man all-time roster, a list that stretches across 30 years of Knights football and includes players who didn’t necessarily finish their careers in Orlando.
The group features some of the biggest names to wear black and gold, from record-setters to NFL draft picks. It also reflects how much quarterback play has shaped UCF’s rise since the program moved into the FBS.
Daunte Culpepper is the headliner. He arrived in 1995 and wiped out every mark Darin Slack had left behind.
Culpepper also set the NCAA single-season completion percentage record at 73.6%, breaking Steve Young’s 15-year standard of 71.3%. By the time he was done, the Ocala, Florida, native had more than 10,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards, and he became the first NFL first-round pick in UCF history.
Blake Bortles followed a different path, but his impact was just as loud. The Jaguars took him fourth overall in the 2014 NFL Draft, making him UCF’s highest first-round pick.
Before that, he put together a huge run in 2012 and 2013, piling up 6,640 yards, 50 touchdowns and 16 interceptions while helping lead the Knights to the inaugural American Athletic Conference championship and the league’s automatic berth to the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. UCF went 22-5 across those two seasons.
McKenzie Milton’s place on the list comes from one unforgettable season after another in 2017. He was the engine of UCF’s undefeated run, finishing with more than 4,500 total yards and 45 touchdowns.
His passing line that year included 4,037 yards, 37 touchdowns and nine interceptions, and he added 613 rushing yards and eight scores on 103 carries. Milton also quarterbacked the Knights to a win over Auburn in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl, sealing the undefeated season.
He’s now back with the same program, working as their quarterback coach.
The list also includes a quarterback from the program’s earlier days in the MAC era. Schneider topped 10,000 career passing yards and posted the highest yards gained per pass attempt for three straight seasons from 2000 to 2002 at 8.4 yards. His best statistical season came in his junior year, when he threw for 3,770 yards, 31 touchdowns and 16 interceptions.
Dillon Gabriel rounds out the group as the only quarterback on the list who did not finish his career at UCF. Even so, he spent his first three seasons in Orlando and accounted for most of his touchdowns in black and gold.
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